Nguyen Thanh Tuong
ABSTRACT
Tourist areas and destinations play an extremely important role in the development of Vietnam's tourism industry in general as well as the development of the local economy in particular, because these are destinations with rich and diverse tourism resources that are attractive to domestic and foreign tourists. By 2023, Vietnam will have 573 tourist destinations, 64 provincial-level tourist areas, and 7 national-level tourist areas recognized (Thanh Giang, 2023). These tourist areas and destinations are highly appreciated for their attractive tourism resources as well as transportation facilities and physical and technical infrastructure. The planning and investment in tourist areas and destinations nationwide have greatly contributed to changing the appearance of tourist areas and destinations to serve the needs of tourists on a large scale. However, a difficult problem for many tourist areas and destinations in Vietnam today is the increasing problem of environmental pollution due to the massive and inconsistent development of tourism in planning and management. Rapid development that focuses too much on economic benefits, inconsistent management methods and especially the lack of a common management model have created difficulties in planning and developing tourist areas and destinations. This leads to the tourist landscape - the main factor that creates the value of tourist areas and destinations not being respected. In the context that tourism is striving to become a key economic sector of the country, contributing to promoting the development of other economic sectors, the management of tourist areas and destinations associated with environmental protection needs to be focused on more than ever, because without good policies, planning and management associated with environmental protection, tourist areas and destinations will no longer be attractive destinations for tourists.
